It is known that the controls (sticks, rudder) of modern aircraft, particularly those known as ministicks, are easy for the pilot and/or the copilot of said aircraft to handle, it being possible for them to be tilted very quickly. By contrast, the actuators operating the moving aerodynamic surfaces of the aircraft (ailerons, flaps, rudders, etc.) operated from these controls cannot respond instantly to the electric commands generated by these controls. There may therefore, at large control amplitudes, be a significant phase shift between the movement of a control and the movement of the moving aerodynamic surfaces it controls.
As a result, the pilot, noticing that the position of the operated mobile aerodynamic surfaces is lagging behind the position chosen for said control member, may attempt to further increase the amplitude by which he tilts said control member. However, the amplitude of turning of the aerodynamic surfaces may then exceed that corresponding to the initial command, which means that the pilot then reduces the tilt of said control member, thus leading, with a delay, to a return of the aerodynamic surfaces, etc. Oscillations, caused by coupling and generally referred to in aeronautical parlance as “pilot induced oscillations” (PIO) therefore occur in the aircraft and may degrade the precision of the flying.
In an attempt at solving this problem, it is known practice to increase the size of the actuators of the aerodynamic surfaces controlled and of their electrical and hydraulic supplies, thus increasing the cost and mass of the aircraft. Such increases in cost and in mass may become intolerable in the case of large-sized aircraft.
Furthermore, document U.S. Pat. No. 4,298,833 envisions the processing of the command, particularly by filtering it, to convert it into an order that is free of pilot induced oscillations. However, this processing is Performed without any true detection of the pilot induced oscillations and without the knowledge of the pilot, who may then continue to generate such oscillations.